Sad, crazy, wild, fun tymz

November 13/12.

Time to fix the hair again. Yep. Long-awaited appointment with Paul ("Master Stylist") Taylor at I 'N I Salon on Bloor Street West at Bathurst. The place was all decorated for the season, (except for me, looking more like leftover Halloween candy). Paul didn't even dare look!

Once more with feeling Paul, OK?? You can DO it! Stay strong!

The beautiful Jennifer Porritt, (who owns the salon, and is a brilliant hair stylist), brought in a friend of hers over the weekend, - an event planner,

to put up some special sparkly decorations.

LOVE the original idea of upside down Christmas trees hanging from the ceiling! (Auntie Ray would have whole-heartedly approved!)

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And I'm a sucker for shimmery silver!

Everywhere!

I used one of the decorations to camouflage my low-light silver foils! WTF??

Two hours later & Paul's Christmas magic was finished. Voila! - Deck them halls, I was put back together! Like Humpty Dumpty.
LOVE the Mad Men, flippy dippy '60s curls! Bring on the scotch-on-the-rocks, the shaken-not-stirred Martinis and mad (not mild) Manhattans! - Cheers!

Hey, forgot to say, Paul also dyed my eyebrows for the first time! Who knew I'd ever do THAT? I kinda looked like Beau Bridges for a while, but the colour turned out perfect -

just like my own colour in the good old days!

Then it was off to Urban Nails to fix that horrible syndrome known as "cracked shellac".

The lovely, talented, soft-spoken Tran, offered to spend an hour with me, "acetoning" off the old stuff, preparing the nail beds, (sounds like a horror movie!), filing, shaping and

painting on three coats of my fave colour, Rosebud -  plus the "shiny buff" on top, till I could almost pass for a hand model! I'm ready to party! (so WHERE'S the bash?? --

- better call Jaymz Bee!)

OK. What else has happened over the past 10 days?  Let's see if I can remember!

Right! Did my first bit of Christmas shopping at Shoppers Drug Mart. Got some Christmas and Hannukah cards and actually checked out the "high end" aisle! - NEVER DO THAT! Didn't buy anything, but spritzed myself with expensive Chanel perfume. Asked the sales lady - how much is the smallest bottle of this stuff? She told me, 80 bucks. Alrighty then. Moving on.

Their front-of-store Christmas tree left a lot to be desired. Ai carumba. Looks like it just got unfolded from the box and needs more decorations. Come on Shoppers! Spend a little! Jazz it up man!

Another day, we headed for The Mandarin for a buffet lunch.

Took my Dad-in-law, Ben Bornstein out for a visit and a feast!

He had some fun trying on Max's "John Lennon" cap, (lookin' good!) -

and seemed to enjoy hanging out with his grandchildren, despite missing Bubie, who passed away just under a month ago. Dad requested some take-out clam chowder to have later for dinner! (they DO make great soup at the Mandarin! Well, let's face it, EVERYTHING there is great!) My fortune cookie said I should smile more. Ha ha! Will try.

Goodbye goldfish and fake ducks!

See you next time!

On November 7th, Sam gave me a birthday gift - a pair of tickets for Kate and me to see La Cage at the Royal Alex! Fabulous seats in Row C!

We went out for lunch at Tim Hortons on King Street West and then asked a passerby to take a shot of us in front of a truck, carting a huge metal horse,

in honour of War Horse, also playing downtown. (Haven't seen it, but everyone says it's brilliant)!

We were really excited to see this big musical production and got such a laugh when a man in drag came out to entertain us all before curtain time.

She introduced herself as "Lily Whiteass" and did a fabulous adlib/improv cold opening. Kate was the youngest person in the audience! The oldest, was 90! (No WONDER they weren't giving standing ovations! - Hey, I'm only quoting Lily here!) Got in BIG trouble for shooting this pic. (yet ANOTHER case of Auntie Ray's instruction - "Don't ask. Apologize later!") - Lily did a FAB job warming up the crowd!

George Hamilton (the "big name" in the show) was the weakest link. Didn't matter though, because Christopher Sieber - ("Albin") was absolutely breathtakingly bold and beautiful!

His version of I Am What I Am was incredible.

When I got home from the theatre, had to come up with a quick dinner for Max and his girlfriend, Robyn. Made PC Shepherd's Pie. (so easy, and SO good). Had strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Max made me laugh by pointing to his mouth and indicating he wanted a spritz of cream in it. (something I used to do when he was a little tyke). He took a shot of whipped cream, right in the middle of eating Shepherd's Pie! Ai yi yi. Gak. Egad. Yikes. Gag me. Ha ha!

The next day, off to Gerrard Square to pick up a bunch of things.

Surprised to see Zellers was gone and Walmart in its place. Took a pic out front and then went inside to check it out. FAR from put together, but the doors were open to the public. My very first introduction to the store was the shrill voice of a woman, sitting at a desk just inside the entrance. She must have seen me shoot the photo outside. She yelled out to me, "NO PICTURES INSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I thought to myself, - nice welcome to the brand new store! OK LADY! Thanks for your hospitality. Be back to see you soon. (not)!

Hightailed it outta there immediately and headed for Home Depot (where they are MUCH more customer-friendly).

Saw some terrific Christmas toys I could hardly resist. - Awwwwwwwwwww - Alvin! - OK Dave!!

Elves who have been to practice to learn how to wiggle their ears, chuckle warmly and go, "Hee-hee" and "Ho-ho" - and important stuff like that!

And Santa, on the verge of cancelling Christmas! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

(Did I buy any of these famous and familiar characters? - I'll let you guess!)

Another day, I decided the weather was nice enough to go for a run on the Riverdale track. Headed out, hoping to beat my record of 8 laps. But hadn't run for more than 25 days (lack of motivation after the loss of my Mum-in-law), so, could only make it to 5 - (2,000 metres). Better than nothing.

Later that evening, drove my daughter, Kate, to see Amanda Palmer at the Phoenix Concert Theatre on Sherbourne with her boyfriend, Damian. I thought Kate looked gorgeous! She says it was a terrific show!

The next day, more errands and shopping on the Danforth. We hit up Loblaws, Shoppers (yep, again), and the weather was stunning!

On Remembrance Day,

watched the CBC TV coverage with host Peter Mansbridge.

 Excellent and emotional, with many shots of the vets.

Stood for the two minutes silence, (as we always used to do with Mum, every November 11th). Had tears in my eyes thinking of the veterans, their families and of all the family members we've lost over the past two years - Mum, Ray, Ev and Jean.

After all the sadness of November 11th, I was happy when my sister, Carrie, dropped by unexpectedly the next day, at our place for a visit. She'd been doing a photo shoot for Tafelmusik and had professional makeup and hair done for the occasion. - For anyone who doesn't know, Carrie is the perfect sister. (duh)

We had tea and cookies together, and before she left, I dragged her down to the basement to hear her nephew, Max and his band mates, Emmett

and Charles, in rehearsal.

Carrie wore noise-cancelling headphones to shut out the ear-shattering sound! I didn't even wear earplugs as I took these shots, (but I should have). LOVE the poster of Alan Alda which Max ordered and paid for himself, as a super M*A*S*H fan. (Hawkeye can inspire anyone)!!

The band - Ghost Daze, wouldn't let Carrie go, without giving her what THEY call their "cheesey" smile and wave! Adios amigos! - The band is recording a 6-song EP on December 8th. Can't wait!

Variety is the spice of life!

June 7/11

So, it's after 4 in the morning and I'm still buzzed, charged, heart racing, brain in overdrive, ideas flowing, I'm pumped. Whatever.

Ya, I know this pic is from yesterday, (and obviously NOT in the middle of the night!), but it's tough to do a new photo shoot every day!

So, let's see. What's inhabiting my brain at the moment? The usual.
(ha ha! - If you've READ this blog, you know there's no such THING as, "the usual!")

Here's something I find strange. When I worked at Global TV, the thing I liked best was that NO day was EVER the same! There wasn't a chance in hell of ever being bored. (or even time to CONTEMPLATE that concept!)

One day, I'd walk in and be told I have to host the show because McAdorey called in sick. Another time, I was sent to cover the retirement party for my own Dad at the CBC! (now THAT was an emotional report!)

Once I lucked out and covered the news conference for George Harrison and actually made all the reporters (AND George) laugh with the one crazy question I was permitted to ask. It was around the time George did the music video for "Got My Mind Stuck On You," in which he suddenly jumps out of his chair does a back flip and performs some raucous gymnastics and gyrating dancing - very obviously done by a "double".



The nutty dance is at about 2:00 into the video. and lasts all of 12 seconds.

I asked, in a very straight voice, "HOW did you manage to DO that"? George laughed and quipped back that he'd been practising with a trainer for WEEKS to get those moves down and he was very glad to know I was suitably impressed! So funny.

Same thing happened at a Toronto Film Festival presser for Dennis Hopper. My question got the most entertaining answer of the day and all the reporters in the room wanted to use it, (except that in order to do so, it would have to be bleeped!)

I stood up and asked Dennis about the movie Blue Velvet (1986) - in which he played the villainous Frank Booth. I wanted to know if it was true that he originally wanted his character not just to inhale nitrous oxide before attacking Isabella Rossellini (Dorothy), but to push it farther and have Frank breathe in HELIUM to change the sound of his voice!

Dennis broke out laughing and admitted that director David Lynch wanted the gas to be helium. Dennis (who said he was an experienced taker of drugs), didn't like that idea and suddenly got it into his head to prove to all the reporters, why this wouldn't have worked! He went into "Frank Booth mode," pretended to grab a gas mask, put it over his nose and mouth, started breathing deeply, then eyed the crowd menacingly and launched into an hysterical, high-pitched, helium-induced voice, quoting his most famous line from the film, - "Don't you fucking LOOK at me!! Don't you fucking LOOK at me!!"

The room full of reporters roared with laughter - and I felt great!

But believe me, things didn't ALWAYS work out quite that well or go my way. Another day, I was about to interview Adam Duritz, lead singer of Counting Crows in a hotel suite.

While helping the cameraman with lights and tripods, Adam suddenly grabbed my notebook off the coffee table, peaked at all my questions and then proceeded to instruct me which of these questions he would or wouldn't answer! I was mortified.

Still another time, I was interviewing actor Beau Bridges, (an actor I've always admired). Having never met him before, I had no idea he had such an intense and steady gaze. It was as though he was seeing into my soul while he talked.

All of a sudden, I started to blush. It just wouldn't stop. Nothing I could do to keep my face from burning bright red, and it was CLEARLY visible to Beau, who must have realized the effect he was having on me and wondered, "What the HELL?"

The more he talked, the worse it got, until finally, I just had to wrap it up! (after that, whenever the opportunity came up to talk to Beau again, I had to back off and get someone ELSE to do the interview!)

As you see, every day was SO different from the next, each presenting its own challenges or delights.

So, my question to myself today is this.

If I was so enthralled with a job that offered this kind of variety every single day, - then why am I so afraid of CHANGE? I LOVED change at work, so why be so reluctant about it in OTHER areas of my life?

I don't get it. I need to get a grip!

How can I persuade myself to learn to embrace or welcome change?